The present invention relates generally to real-time communication activities, and, more specifically, to a system and method for providing immediate and delayed real-time communication activities based on user availability, as determined from and/or in cooperation with one or more external instant messaging systems.
As it is generally known, and despite all previous attempts to fully automate business processes, there remains a large class of problems that require human expertise and action, often through some form of real-time interaction. Since relevant information to solve a given problem is often stored in the minds of specific individuals, successful problem solving often entails identifying that person whose expertise enables them to deal with the problem, and initiating contact with that person via a real-time communication technique, such as through instant messaging software, the telephone system, and/or online or face-to-face meetings. This process may require effectively choosing among multiple people and multiple means of contacting those people. For a programmed computer system to assist in this process, it must have some way of assessing whether a given person is currently reachable by one of a number of appropriate communication channels, and whether the person is currently available for the desired action.
In existing instant messaging systems, one increasingly important mechanism for assessing a person's current, on-line presence is the state of that person's instant messaging account. Public instant messaging services such as AOL®, MSN®, and Yahoo® are known to maintain information on their users, such as whether they are currently logged in, and whether they have been typing at their keyboard recently. Such existing systems further allow a user to explicitly set presence states to indicate that they are away from the computer or do not wish to be disturbed.
While industry groups are working to establish standards for interoperability among instant messaging systems, existing public systems currently do not support such a standard. Accordingly, it may be difficult to obtain presence information through existing instant messaging systems. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that some existing systems present different information to different users (e.g. one user may specify that his or her online presence is only to be shared with specified users).
Existing systems have further shortcomings in the area of real-time communications. These shortcomings include the lack of a simple, data-driven mechanism for users to effectively specify how a desired real-time communication should be provided. Existing systems fail to provide a mechanism by which a user can conveniently and comprehensively define contact information, as well as delegated stand-ins for that user, where such stand-ins may be considered as alternative contacts, or automatically contacted in the event that the user is determined to be currently unavailable. Additionally, existing systems do not provide a mechanism for organizations to configure a real-time communication system to meet more sophisticated, business specific requirements.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system that provides a simple, data-driven mechanism for users to control how various real-time communication operations are provided, such as by indicating or providing contact information and names of delegated stand-ins through a graphical user interface. Such a system should also provide a mechanism for organizations to define complex rules that fit their specific business processes.
Additionally, it would be desirable to have a system that includes support for communication requests that span extended time periods. For example, the system should support an operation in which a sender issues a request that a real-time communication take place when a chosen recipient becomes available, and in which the system waits for the availability of the recipient for hours, days, or weeks. Moreover, the system should be able to efficiently support this service for large numbers of users, by efficiently providing a way for information about real-time communication requests to be stored and retrieved, and also avoid the use of a separate process running in a server system for each such request.